1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to digital media products. More particularly, the present invention relates to interfaces for accessing digital media content.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital content has evolved dramatically in terms of scope and prevalence over the past several years. For example, analog sources such as vinyl records played back on turntable playback units have been substantially replaced by portable CD ROM players or personal portable players having MP3 (Motion Picture Experts Group, Audio Layer III) and other audio digital file playback capabilities. Recently, personal portable players have added video track playback capabilities. Portable media players typically download digital media files from a client computer.
With cheaper and higher capacity flash and hard drive memories available, it isn't unusual to see a large number of audio or other media tracks stored on the portable device. For example, a portable media player having 1.0 GB of flash memory is capable of storing and playing more than 300 audio tracks compressed at a typical compression level. A 30 GB hard drive based portable media player is capable of storing and playing more than 10,000 tracks compressed at a typical compression level. Hence, portable media players typically storing hundreds and in some cases thousands of tracks need a way to efficiently identify tracks for playback. In order to access these tracks, navigation methods have been disclosed that use hierarchical navigation techniques. In order to access a particular track, for example to play it or to add it to a playback queue, an interactive procedure takes place wherein the user provides a selection through an input control in response to a presentation of all or part of the hierarchy as displayed on a display screen. Unfortunately, under some conditions, the user may not be able to devote full attention to the navigational hierarchy views displayed on the display screen or prefer an alternative arrangement.
It is therefore desirable to provide a navigation method that allows the user to locate suitable tracks without requiring his full attention to the navigation views presented on a display screen.